Blowing off steam!

This morning, I had to get up out of my nice, warm bed and go to work. Thank God I have a job, but there was NO reason for me to be there; seriously! It was billed as an "AP and PreAP test preparation session," which I took to mean that AP and PreAP teachers would be separated and given some instruction on how to best prepare their students for their upcoming end-of-course examinations. Wrong! It was literally a prep session for AP students! Teachers, AP and PreAP alike, monitored the sessions, all of which were for AP level courses in high school. Uhhh...what's a 7th grade teacher supposed to glean from THAT? Exactly! Zilch! Nada! Nyet!

Can you tell I'm getting a little frustrated by this whole process?

It wouldn't be so bad if the kids in my preAP classes were all preAP type kids. Easily half of them have no business being in an accelerated class, which, of course, drags the whole class down such that the preAP classes are scarcely more advanced than a general-ed class, if that. Naturally, since they ALL have to take the end-of-course test and have not had anywhere near enough preparation for it, they're all going to bomb it and make me look bad. Set up for failure by factors beyond my control. What a concept!

The other big story this week was our "OCR/TEA" (Office of Civil Rights/Texas Education Agency)visit. We got about a two-week notice of their impending arrival, so the school looked really good when they arrived; walls decorated, doors decorated, classrooms pristine, etc. I saw a teacher from another one of the Intermediates in the district this morning and she said the same thing; lots of notice and LOTS of preparation. No WONDER the powers that be think everything is hunky-dory! If this is how they inspect every school they go into, they never see anything but the "best foot!" I wonder what they'd have thought if they'd have come in two weeks before completely unannounced? Oh, it's not that the school looked bad or anything; it just wasn't the model campus that they saw two weeks later, that's all. Anyway, they came to our campus on Thursday. We were ordered to be in our "highly professional" attire for the whole week, so it was the fourth day I'd had to answer the question "why are you wearing a tie, mister?" I'd shortened it to "a visit from corporate," but most of them didn't know what that meant. In any case, they came, they saw and they conquered (I guess). We were told via e-mail that the campus looked great and the inspectors were favorably impressed, but we have no formal report as of yet. I guess we'll know what they thought well after no one cares what they thought. By the way, I did not see any of the inspectors personally, but I was assured that they did in fact visit. In that way they were very much like Sasquatch or the Abominable Snowman. We've got "reliable" reports of their existence, just no verifiable proof!

See you next year, Yetti!

Thursday was a LONG day. Jack did one of his "over the gate" tricks and woke me up with his barking at 4:30 in the morning. I never did get back to sleep. The first track meet was also on Thursday, which means I didn't get off work until nearly 6:30 at night. 14-hour days are for guys much younger than I am. I'm still recovering. Maybe that's why the "total waste of time" seminar I had to go to this morning rankled me so. I needed the sleep that I missed much more than the Sominex injection I was treated to. Maybe tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I came home from that debacle to surprise MDB and she's not home! Evidence of CDM (#1 son) is apparent, but no persons on the premises. He's here for his birthday celebration a little early b/c he gets to go to China for his company. I got to go to Baton Rouge for my company once. Anyway, MDB baked him a cake and MDB's parents are coming to share in the celebration. We're grilling steaks to go along with her delicious vegetables she's preparing! It ought to be good!

Well, I think I'll mow real quick before anyone sees me goofing off! - Dan